


Weight of the Unknown

by RazleDazle



Series: Beacon in the Darkness [2]
Category: Rhett and Link
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, BDSM, Blow Jobs, Bondage, Christian/Catholic faith and prayer, Death, Description of dead body, Disturbing Themes, Dom!Rhett, Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, Funeral, Hospital, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Masturbation, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Flagellation, Sexual Violence, Smut happens in Chapter 3, Sub!Link, Swearing, Violence, breath play, life after death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-09-09 13:39:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8892808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RazleDazle/pseuds/RazleDazle
Summary: Link is lost and has forgotten everything. "Rhett" finds him. "Rhett" is determined to make him remember every last detail. Through. Any. Means. Necessary. 
Even if that means violence and torture. Even if that means tying Link up and fucking him within an inch of his life. 
Link will remember what he did.





	1. Existence and Death

**Author's Note:**

> I have decided to separate these next few chapters from the main story. It is taking on a new direction and marrying it together with the other leaves me uneasy. So this separation clears my mind so that I can write how I feel. I know it makes little sense, dear reader, but my mind is a weird place. Just go with it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link is gone. Now _He_ comes into existence. There are things _he_ should remember, but doesn’t. There’s a feeling, a should that _he_ is obliged to acknowledge. Fleetingly, the many things _he_ can not remember stack up and and are thrown away. Will _he_ remember the thing _he_ did? What will happen to _him_ now?

_He_ comes into existence. The how and why are misunderstood and inconsequential. The time before _him_ is invalid and unremarkable.   _He_ takes in the entirety of the room, standing and staring, flicking _his_ gaze about in no real hurry to understand.  

 

Well not standing, more like floating, because this form did not have legs or feet. It did, but it didn’t. And not so much stared, but absorbed the vibrations and colors of the space as this being also did not have eyes. It did, but it didn’t. But for the purposes of comfort the being liked to think that it was _his_ eyes taking in the scene and _his_ feet and legs moving _him_ about the space, even though sight and movement happened in a tenth of an instant. The being was aware of the speed and the intensity of the sights, but chose to ignore it.  

 

“Stepping” along the hard linoleum floor, _he_ approached the bed, drawn to the mess of a man that _he_ saw on top of it. _He_ did not recognize the limp, broken body twisted in the sheets, one arm thrown at an awkward angle underneath him and the other hanging off the bed, palm up.  Moving closer, _he_ glimpsed the shadows under parted eyes as the orbs glared menacingly out at _him_.  Unfocused pupils peeking out beneath long lashes accused _him_ of dreadful things. Things _he_ should remember, but didn’t. Memories _he_ couldn’t care less about not having access to anymore. It was just a feeling _he_ had, a should that _he_ was obliged to acknowledge, but chose not to. Fleetingly, the many things _he_ could not remember stacked up and were thrown away, overlooked and forgotten ideas unimportant to _him_.  

 

Crusty and frothy drool and vomit drizzled down the poor man’s chin and onto his chest. A painful jolt vibrated through _him_.  Well, not painful, because this being could no longer feel pain, could not feel much of anything anymore. The act of feeling was among the forgotten ideas he had tossed to the wind. A deeply foreign idea, something _he_ vaguely held as true, but not true for _him_.  But the fact of the matter was this was the word _he_ chose for the sensation that tore at _him_. It really didn’t matter much to the being either way. _He_ found it curious. _He_ found the man curious and this whole room curious.

 

_He_ reached out to wipe at the spittle at the man’s face and swiped at nothing. Staring down at the space where “his hands” would be, _he_ saw nothing but time and reality flicking in and out between streaks of white and dark. Waving the wispy limbs, _he_ created streaks a gray and purple color in front of _him_ as he gazed through _himself_ at the scratched floor.  

 

A rush of commotion descended upon the room. Fuzzy beings floated by in slow motion, rushing through _him_ and toward the disheveled man that lay on the bed. Sobs, shouts and orders flung about the small space, sounds dying away to normal ears. But to _his_ “ears”, the vibrations continued to wreak havoc on the room, bouncing along the white plain walls, unsettled and picking up speed. A soft voiced and muffled cry emanated from a fuzzy being at the base of the bed. _He_ watched the sound waves oscillate out of the fragile being and permeate _his_ formlessness. Her sounds overtake all the others in the room, until all _he_ could take in was her.  

 

Curious, curious.

 

_He_ “sidestepped” the chaos around the bed and “stood” next to this crying female body.  Her face was blurry and the sounds she created buzzed around _him_. Clear streaks of wetness ran down the female, clearing the image for a moment for _him_ to discern perfectly white soft skin before _his_ vision flicked out again.

 

Curious.  

 

_He_ “stood” next to her, absorbing her emotions and sounds. Letting these waves encircle _him_ and fill _him_.   _He_ felt like _he_ should do something for this crushed woman. A strange feeling. What did it mean? _He_ did not have long to dwell on it.

 

Suddenly the buzzing and vibrations became too sudden and too sharp. _He_ looked down at _his_ form and everything shook.  The room, the fuzzy beings and the man in the bed cracked and fell away.   _He_ felt _himself_ being shredded to pieces, the feeling excruciating and fresh and natural.

 

Torn from this room, _he_ rushed past faces and environments but nothing took shape in front of _his_ “eyes”. It was a fog of pale blues, vibrant reds and dashing greens. A shadowy sea of eyes, friendly, tired, angry and scared. Nothing made sense to _him_ , yet everything made sense to _him_ and at the same time it didn’t matter if what was happening was nonsense or not. _He_ could not pick out a single object or single person that could anchor _him_. As _his_ body was thrown about, _he_ should have been nauseous.   _He_ should have been afraid. _He_ should have been confused. But instead _he_ was none of those things and all of those things.

 

_He_ had the nagging feeling in the back of _his_ being that _he_ should feel alone. That _he_ should be looking for something. That _he_ should be something. That something horrible had been done by _his_ “hands” that _he_ couldn’t take back. But he couldn’t put _his_ “finger” on what those somethings were. And instead of worrying about what _he_ clearly would normally fret over had _he_ been a different being, _he_ allowed himself to be pushed and pulled and yanked about among the colors of this space in which _he_ found himself. Colorful and at the same time dark. _He_ let himself be tugged as _he_ wondered when it would stop. When _he_ would be cast off this roller coaster and be able to stay still and wishing _he_ could stay adrift in peace forever.  At the same time uncaring about movement or stillness, the commotion lost on _him_.

 

As suddenly as _he_ had been ripped from the strange hospital room with the mourning and loud people and plunged into colors, was as sudden as _he_ blinked _his_ “eyes” and was transported to a grassy knoll. Trees dotted the expanse of bleary green, their limbs scraggly with few leaves. Overcast skies threatened precipitation, as electricity and rumbling came from somewhere far away.   Deep, solemn words echoed across the hills and _he_ could feel a vibration in the place where _his_ skull used to be. Words that _he_ could not hear, but felt tingling in all parts of _him_.

 

 

> _We are reminded that all of us are living in a dying world. Man is continually moving along his path toward his forever home in the arms of Christ.  With observation and experience, we have learned that the little time we have on this wonderful bastion that was gifted to us is that we must take every day as a privilege and not a right._

 

Waves of choked sobs and huffed breaths shot through _him_ and encircled _him_. And then _his_ form was among the sounds. Engulfed in the misery, drowning in their tears and their unsaid words. Sadness pounding at the inside of _his_ wispy bodiless form.  Many feelings that _he_ sloughed off and dismissed. This being did not worry _himself_ over the trivials of the wailing forms in front of _him_. Not out of any contempt or malice, but because feeling simply was not _his_ truth.   _He_ was unable to feel the emotions of waking life. Unable to recall the sweet agony of love. Unable to feel numbness.  Unable to remember that the he of another life once felt things with his entire being as the shock of excitement or happiness or pain of betrayal rocketed through that other thing’s body.  These lovely and painful insignificant things were gone. _He_ didn’t even know that _he_ should miss them.  

 

 

> _Today, one of our own has been transcended and is now with our Lord and Savior. And we are reminded that life is a precious gift that should not be taken for granted, because at any moment what we think is ours and will be ours for many, many years is pulled away._
> 
> _Now in our grief we say goodbye to Charles Lincoln Neal III, Link, as his close loved ones and family referred to him as. But in our tears and our farewells, we remember all the happy times. The times Link held us up, the times he made us laugh when we were down, the great father and husband he always strived to be.  The friend, the son, the nephew, the grandson, the stranger, the acquaintance, the boss, the man._  

The prayer floated on the breeze in golds and yellows, bouncing among the fizzly bodies and coursing through _him_ and away through the trees and across the grass. How depressing, _he_ thought. No not thought. This form could not think. It wasn’t depressing, it just was. Whatever was happening, just happened. This form could not think anything into existence, not anymore. Things just came and went, were observed, but never experienced. Emotions and memory gone.  Knowledge of anything that came before this nonexistent.  Striving for any future need absent. Past, present and future mingled together and took on the same definition of nothingness.  

 

> _We pray that he finds his home and we hope the good Lord finds forgiveness for all of his faults and wrongdoings in Heaven, just as his friends and family have loved and forgiven him his failings in life. So as we commit his body to the ground, we pray for the good Lord to bless him and bless us and to grant us strength in times where we are weak and to continue to bestow the blessings of love and family in the times ahead._

_His_ buoyant being drifted along the herd of misery, observing the priest spout out the words that were supposed to comfort the masses. Watched the bodies flicker in and out and sizzle in _his_ vision as blackness drenched the whole sequence.  As the minister was nearing the end of _his_ litany, _he_ forced _his_ disconnected self to gaze down and through the casket at the poor soul inside.

 

> _Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me._

How familiar that face seemed. But familiarity was relative. Everything held a tinge of knowledge for _him_. Everything seemed like something _he_ had once held in _his_ “hands” and loved and cherished and breathed in. Sight, smell, warmth, beauty. Nothing was the same, but _he_ didn’t know that. Because _he_ could not remember a time before this. This disconnected fuzzy world filled with grief and despair. An emotion that was foreign to _him_ , yet vaguely fresh.  

As the solid form was lowered into the cold wet earth, all realities, nightmare and dream melded together. And as quickly as the familiarity pulled at _him_ , _he_ was swept through the casket and away to another place.


	2. Filling to the Brim

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This image filled _him_ with a knowing marvel that tingled at _his_ edges. The unknown knowledge of how and why a useless strangle on _his_ ever solidifying form. Each new wave and sensation uncovered a granule of knowing in _him_ and thus filled _him_. Soon _he_ would be at the brim with all _he_ knew and the being was unsure - unaware - unfeeling of what that would mean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inspiration
> 
> [Rhett and Link Prom Pose](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/post/154649287194)
> 
>  
> 
> [The last gif](http://christinafaaaye.tumblr.com/post/146125045504/mythical-shippings-dad-mode-link-addicted-to%20)
> 
>  
> 
> [This video ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofPypmcPvY&feature=youtu.be)

 

* * *

 

_He_ was gone, unaware of any form of reality. Eons, minutes, years could have passed by and _he_ would never have known it to have been more than a moment.  With intense focus, _he_ traced _himself_ along the ceiling, filling in the cracks, feeling over the grooves, slithering down the curtains to the plush carpet. Oozing in all directions, reaching _himself_ out to the furthest part of the room and then snapping back into _himself_.

A feeling of solidity held _him_ in place, as _his_ form danced along the furniture on it’s way back to _him_ .  Patiently, or impatiently, _he_ wouldn’t know the word, _his_ “eyes” swept about the room. In the lightest of “steps” _he_ hovered from corner to corner taking in the lack of energy, the lack of movement. The entirety of the space seemed devoid of everything.

_His_ form twitched, expanding a bit, feeling along the planes of reality. Searching. Finding nothing. In no real hurry -- for what was there to hurry for-- the being loped about, gazing at the trinkets and strange faces held in glass casings. It seemed as if _his_ “eyes” had improved, since _he_ could make out the bodies of these meaningless forms, the wrappings that fit to their body, but strangely the faces were blurry. _He_ flicked himself from frame to frame absorbing the images, memorizing the settings, the statures. Strange and curious.

Waves of sound bounced about the room dragging _him_ from his wandering. A meld of tinkling, sweetly tight waves and deep elongated waves strung together encircling _him_ and tugging _him_ toward the source.

_Laughter_.

The strange word itched at _him_ . When had _he_ known this word was a mystery. But it was plain as day pounding at _his_ senses.

Drawn to a dark, enclosed space, the form glimpsed at the moving pictures on a flat device. Several small beings dotted the spaces between two others.   _He_ grasped at the drawn out waves emanating from the taller being to the left, reaching deep inside the machine and through it, touching the colors. _His_ dark wispy appendages encircled the mechanism and floated along the space with the reverberations of blue and yellow, brown and red. Searching out and examining the energy of each form, marveling at the connections.     

A movement to the right. _His_ “eyes” caught the dark haired man --so much more vibrant than when he had seen him last, his energy cascading off him in swells-- snatching small arms and twining them around himself.  

A sudden rush of warmth eked out along _his_ upper half. A small body pressed against _him_.

Curious.

Twisting and extending _himself_ , the being found that _he_ was alone. But _he_ had felt that small form’s arms about him just as clearly as if she were in the same room. The warmth against his back rippled across _him_ , causing _him_ to bubble and burst with a word.

_Family_.

Names whispered in the air, filling _his_ “ears” with a buzzing. A flicker of recognition lit a flame through him, encompassing him in fiery orange and yellow. Licking at his skin --skin?  Feeling tingled in _his_ fingertips and scraped along _his_ arms, across _his_ chest to _his_ face. _He_ was smoky and feathery, translucent and gray but no longer formless. Hazy film coated _his_ edges, shimmering in the ripples of sound surrounding _him_.  

As _he_ brought _his_ hands to _his_ face, _he_ grazed along his jawbone, feeling the scratch of something.   _His_ index finger felt along the plush softness surrounded by scruff and plunged inside. Feeling along the gaps, _his_ digit clicked at the jagged porcelain. _He_ jammed _his_ fists into his face, through _himself_ and out the other end, but meeting resistance along the way.

Curious and strange.

The mechanism flickered out, plunging the room in darkness. Leaving _him_ to flex and touch and wonder at the strangeness of _his_ new form.

 

* * *

 

The being lazed about the dark, empty rooms. Drifting through dust particles that bounced in rays of light coming from clear panes in the walls. Unknowing and uncaring how long _he_ had been in this space or how many times _he_ had visited this same room.

_He_ skated along the wall to a door, skimming _his_ hand along and through the smooth surface of the knob as _he_ entered the room. Constantly pulled to the same area with the moving pictures from a time far away. The pictures were gone and silence filled the blackened screen. But _he_ could still see the weightless see-through forms etched on all the surfaces. The once solid forms a part of _him_ now.

Ghosting along the wallpaper, _he_ was drawn to a glass casing --just as _he_ was drawn every other time _he_ entered this vacant space -- that held two male beings. One the dead man in the intricate box that was laid in the dirt and the other the male being from the moving pictures. Dark baritone exuded from the image, one and the same as the energy from the now silenced flat device. The same deeply satisfying sound waves that bounded along _his_ tendons, filling _him_ and rounding _him_ out.

The forms had their hands clasped and their feet raised in a strange stance that equally puzzled and enthralled _him_ . Such familiarly in a pose, but the being pushed it away. The unknown knowledge of how and why a useless strangle on _his_ ever solidifying form. Each new wave and sensation uncovered a granule of knowing in _him_ and thus overcrowded _him_ . Soon _he_ would be at the brim with all _he_ knew and the being was unsure - unaware - unfeeling of what that would mean.

This image most of all filled _him_ with a knowing marvel that tingled at _his_ edges.  Each time _he_ glimpsed the image and the figure to the left, more of the scene would be uncovered. The more that was uncovered, the more _he_ absorbed. Be it a blade of grass or the color of the flower attached to the form’s breast.

Whatever the detail, it would consume the being and cause a new fleeting memory to arise and then be long forgotten in the same fifth of a second. The stickiness of the memory would remain though, slithering along _his_ middle, gliding up _his_ throat and settling in the back of _his_ skull. Leaving traces vibrating throughout _him_ , the amount of knowledge long gone, but the fullness remaining.

But today, at this very moment, _he_ bored into the images more closely.  Swiping along the trees, glazing over the pinks and white, ingesting the gray sky. Swallowing the youth in the lithe bodies and letting the feeling of that day long ago engulf _him_ and take _him_.

The strength it bestowed on him opened wide _his_ senses and _he_ was able to see upturned smiles and hear the lilting of twang in voices. These visions filled _him_ and _he_ expanded, filling the room.  Touching opposite ends and pushing through the walls, on the edge.  

Seeing the flash of light blind _his_ senses and the warmth of _his_ willowy limbs pressed against a heated moist flesh warped _him_ back to _himself_ . In a flash, _he_ found _himself_ in front of the portrayal of young images, _his_ lips smacking around letters and sounds.  

 

………….

…….Rh---ett ….. And ….. L---ink. …..

………….

The names meant nothing to _him_ . The harsh thwaks of _his_ tongue as it shot against the words were everything to _him_ . They filled _him_ to the brim, until _he_ was bursting with the flavors of sunshine but was left empty with ignorance.

What did this mean?

These words, these faces entirely vital but easy to throw away, forgettable. The being mulled over the encased image and _he_ threw _his_ mouth and vocal cords over the words echoed around _him_ . _He_ tasted the rigidity of something that was tinged in happiness, sweet with desire. _His_ mouth coated in honey tasted like a lifetime. It had the slight saltiness of understanding. The spice of knowing something for so long that it is not a part of you, but is you. A facet of your inner workings that you can never be free of and would never even try.

_His_ mouth salivated over the richness of the words. Head aching with knowing that _he_ knew nothing, but could know everything if _he_ really desired to.

_Rh---ett ? . . . . L---ink?. .. . . Link?. . . ..  Link?.  . . . .Rhett?. . ._

  

> Alarms going off. . . Body being thrown. . .  Warm sand. . . Pleasure. . . Confusion . . . A spirit floating away from a beautiful being strapped to machines. . .

_Rhett . . . Link . . ._

  

> Swimming in a creek. A colored picture. A warm day of traipsing through the trees. Drives along a dirt road. Twin rocks. A feeling that a million years has passed but only a second has ticked on. Lives intermingled. Blood shed. Shared memories divided between two distinct persons.

_Rhett. Link. Link. Rhett_ . _Link and Rhett._

  

> Two chairs situated side by side. Cameras. A desk. A basement. A studio. Bouncing in a vehicle on a journey. Sitting so close. Planning, building and creating. Songs. Awards heavy and firm in the palms of hands. A Friendship.

_Rhett and Link!_

The moist slither of acquiescence filled _his_ mouth and trickled down _his_ throat. But just as the flavor crackled through _his_ innards, the world went dark. And it was gone.

* * *

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you dear reader for taking the time to read my fic. It is taking on a life of its own and going in so many different directions. I am having trouble wrangling it in. It is unlike anything I have ever written. If my mind allows, it will get much darker next chapter. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter just as much as I did writing it. I do this for you and for my love of RandL. 
> 
>  
> 
> <3 [Razle-Dazle](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/)


	3. Pain of Remembrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhett will make Link remember. Through any means, necessary. 
> 
>  
> 
> _“You can not pass out. You will not leave until you have learned.” Rhett said, loosening the collar minutely. “Does this seem familiar to you? The struggle for breath?” Rhett growled, smacking his dick against Link’s swollen, blue lips. "It should!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lovely and dear reader. This story takes a turn for the worse. I did warn that it would not be unicorns and rainbows. I can't make any promises. There will be suffering. And it will hurt. 
> 
> But there is a reason for it. 
> 
> This is my first time writing something this dark and violent. Please be gentle. <3

* * *

 

He opened his heavy eyes and he felt himself exist in this space. No. He was no longer _he_. He was no longer the formless, weightless being. There had been a word. The taste on the tip of his tongue. A full feeling in his gut. Knowledge that made him dance and sweat. A name. He drew his bottom lip into his mouth, teeth gnashing delicately at the skin in thought.

_A name. A name._

_A phrase of names._

_Link_ . His mind whispered. _Rhett_. His ears echoed.

 _Link_ . He bit into the word and chewed it slowly. Savoring the way his tongue clicked at the roof of his mouth and the whoosh of forced air from his lungs to make the sharp sounds. He closed his eyes at the warm breath that tickled his lips at the sound of his own name. It was delicious. It was empowering. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. _Link. L-I-N-K. Link._

The rush of remembrance was stilled as he felt the jab of oppression on his limbs. His eyes travelled along his breast bone, caressed along his shoulder to his elbows and upturned hands. Hands that were bound on either side of him. Struggling, his body lifted from the flat surface in which he was tied, but was thrown back down with nowhere to go. He was trapped by the chains that held his fully solid form down.

Fear laced its way around his neck, choking him. Oh, wait. No, that was not fear, but something - a necklace? -- being strapped to his neck from a pair of unseen hands. The cool material felt heavy and thick on his throat.

Suddenly a formidable being engulfed his body and overpowered the entirety of Link’s vision. His focus was on nothing but the _thing_ in front of him, foreground blurry and falling away. Light fluttering around him making him seem ethereal and heavenly.

But on further examination, heavenly was not the word that described this being. Wild. that’s one. Dirty. There’s another. Untamed and hungry, evidenced by the glassy look in its red rimmed eyes. Angry and evil. Threatening. All good words, but could not come close to what Link saw. Link wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t experienced it for himself.  

The face of this creature shook him to the bone. It’s head swivelled in front of him, each turn a new unfamiliar set of eyes, lips and nose. Features whizzed across the being’s face, spinning and blurry.  It’s body was coming closer, but it’s movement was not fluid. It flicked from place to place in front of Link. Coming and going, in and out of existence. The being’s skin vibrated and it had fire in its hair. Naked except for a flimsy pair of linen shorts. Streaked with gray and muck and chiseled like stone.

Link’s tongue was frozen in shock. Dense and useless in his mouth as the being settled on a face.

“Link.” The being threw out the word at Link, velvety smooth, like a purr. The word travelled along in the cold air, swirling along the flames that licked at the sides of the cave, reaching out to Link’s ear drums and setting his heart to pitter patter.

_No, no it could not be._

_This was not real._

_He was not supposed to be here._

Link deserved this -why, Link could not imagine, but knew for certain- but he did not. He was good and pure, saving Link from himself. Loving him in the darkness.

_Why oh why would he be here?_

His body forced him to make sounds. To unstick his tongue. Shakily, Link found his voice.

“Rhett.”

* * *

 

“Oh, honey pie.” Rhett mewled. “Don’t be frightened.” He smiled dastardly as he yanked at the chains on Link’s wrists, causing him to cry out in shock.

“I’m here, baby.” Another painful yank this time to his ankles. Link could feel the cold metal biting into his flesh. Threatening to break the skin. Red welts already forming along his feet and hands.

“Oh, dear. I’m sorry.” He sang. “Let me take your mind off of that.” His trailed his fingers up Link’s middle, tickling his nipples as he grazed up his adam’s apple. Stopping.

A sudden pressure shot out along Link’s neck crushing his windpipe. His torso jumped up in protest from the pain and lack of oxygen.

“Do you like it? I knew you were coming, so I got this collar especially for you.”

Link opened and closed his mouth, struggling to suck in air, his chest hollow and tight. He could feel himself blinking out, the edges of his vision going white. No more oxygen left to even grunt.

_This is it. How can this be it?_

And then all at once sweet oxygen was pulled through his teeth, setting fire to his lungs and causing him to cough uncontrollably.

“Oh my. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Again, the collar was yanked so hard, it made Link’s head spin. With tears streaming down his face, he pulled in a mouthful of oxygen through his crushed trachea before the collar was tightened. He balled his fists so hard that his nails cut deeply into his palms as he held on to himself.

Link concentrated on his heart beat, while his brain screamed for air. His body demanded it as he began to grapple with his body on the slab, sweat pouring down his face. One beat. Two beats. Three beats. On and on. Until the moment Link thought he was going to pass out, the collar was loosened and oxygen returned.

“Hmmm. My baby, baby. You are strong. Good boy.” Rhett cooed, petting Link’s hair away from his sweaty face. Kissing him sweetly.

“Are you ready?”

Without an answer Rhett slapped Link across the face, sending his jaw flying in the other direction and then slammed the collar down on his throat again.

Link had not had a chance to recover from the slap enough to take in air. His body began to convulse immediately. Hands scraping at stone, finger nails splintering and breaking. Feet slapping down, bruising the bones of his heels.

“Oh, you should see yourself.” Rhett moaned palming himself. He climbed up on the stone slab, straddling Link’s chest. “That is a delicious shade of purple, baby.” He said as he pulled himself out of his shorts, long and thick in his hand.

Link could feel his eyes exploding from his face.

“Oh, Link. Look what you do to me.” Rhett groaned, as his hand slid slowly up and down his length.

Link was drifting. Floating away.

“Mmmm. . .” Rhett circled his thumb over his slit, spreading precome over the head. Teasing himself.

Bits of white smudged Link’s vision and his body relaxed.  

“What? This will not do. You can not pass out. You will not leave until you have learned.” Rhett said shaking his head and loosening the collar minutely. Just enough for Link to hiss enough breath through to keep him conscious.

“Does this seem familiar to you? The struggle for breath?” Rhett growled, smacking his dick against Link’s swollen, blue lips.

“Oh, that goddam mouth.” Rhett grumbled as he invaded Link, slipping past his teeth and settling heavy on his tongue. His hips pumping himself in and out as Link wriggled beneath him, gurgling his protest at the intrusion.     

“Do you remember? -- Shit, your fucking slut mouth -- Do you understand now? -- You fucking want me in the back of throat, don’t you?” Rhett moaned obscenities in between his sentences as he shoved himself deeper and faster, slamming into the back of Link’s damaged esophagus.

Link whimpered, unable to form words around Rhett’s cock. Unable to do much of anything but take the abuse - well deserved.  Link could not pinpoint why he deserved such treatment. It was just that he knew. The weight of all his knowing was an anvil on his chest in the form of Rhett. It was something simple. Something you forget how you learned, but you somehow know. Like you were born knowing. That’s what this felt like to Link. He didn’t know the where’s and how’s of this knowledge. He just knew that he was deserving.

“Do you understand the feel of your body wanting for air, your heart beating madly for it, only to be denied? Do you remember?” Rhett pulled himself out of Link’s mouth and with three rigid pumps to himself, came hot and messily against Link’s face. His seed glistening in Link’s hair, beading on his forehead. The stickiness dripped down his nose and chin, covering him in Rhett’s sin.

Link’s entire body quavered as he shook his head at Rhett’s question.

“It should!” Rhett screamed, slamming his fist down in Link’s chest. “It damn well should.” He said menacingly quiet, as he tightened the notches of the collar as far as they would go. “Ah. . .” Link screeched and then made no noise, his body twisting in vain to get away.

“You will fucking remember, you dirty soul.” Rhett snarled, twisting his fist into Link’s gut, trying to punch a hole through him and to the stone table underneath him.

Link felt the pressure building in his chest. The feel of unleashed air trying to escape through his pores. The feel of his mouth collapsing in on itself and locking trying to take in something, anything to make the burning stop.  The effort to pull in air through his muscles caused Link to bite down on his tongue and draw blood. Spit and blood pooled in the divot underneath his throat, tongue hanging out of his mouth, as red saliva ran down his chin.

“Oh, baby, baby. Look what I have done. You are not ready. That’s ok.” Rhett loosened the collar, and Link gasped in relief. Tears flooded his vision at the sweet taste of air ripping through his insides.

“You have done so much, so much that you don’t even realize how bad you have been. But it’s ok. I will help you. I will bring you to the light and you will feel better.”  Link shivered as Rhett traced his nails down Link’s arm.

“Let Daddy make it better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me, here. I hope you enjoyed it or understand the need for it. As always, comments give me life and make me strong! Be well. 
> 
> <3 [Razle-Dazle](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/)


	4. The Teasing Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The truth and Rhett tease Link. His need is great and he is oversensitive and about to burst with pleasure and truth. Will he be allowed to go over the edge? Will he learn what he has forgotten?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters have been separated into a different series than Beacon in the Darkness. My Tumblr chapter numbers and my AO3 chapter numbers for this fic are slightly different. Please don't be confused. <3

* * *

 

“Ahhhh. . .Rhett. . . Yes . . .” Link moaned, thrusting himself into Rhett’s warm and tight mouth. The feel of Rhett all around him left his body glistening in a sheen of sweat. The cool air kissed his skin, making him shiver. But the cold sat on the back burner of Link’s mind. In the forefront, was nothing but Rhett. 

Rhett’s thumbs jutting into his hips, finding the sensitive grooves to sink into. Rhett’s beard as it tickled his thighs, sending ripples of pleasure up his abdomen. The velvety insides of Rhett’s mouth and the scrape of his teeth along Link’s sensitive skin. All these sensations were Earth shattering, making Link dizzy with the amount of touches flooding his body.

Link’s need was great, he was oversensitive and about to burst. Rhett felt so good, so damn good. Link could feel himself tensing, the warmth flooding him, about to teeter off the edge and crash to the rocky plains below. Building, building and then the disappointment of cold air swirled around him, bringing him back to reality. 

The breeze tickled his member, drying the saliva that coated him. Whining, Link pushed his pelvis up into Rhett, begging the man to continue, only to have a firm hand push him roughly back into place. 

“You thought you could have it all, didn’t you? You thought that once you got through the hard parts, that you would find peace. That you would find what you longed for?” Rhett snorted and dug his fingers into Link’s thighs, making Link’s body jut upwards toward Rhett’s body.

“Please. . . Rhett. . .Oh God. . .”

Rhett dipped his head down out of Link’s view. His lips returned, urgently mouthing Link all the way down to the base.  Link could feel the long intense strokes up and down his dick. Rhett’s mouth tugged at the shorter man, cheeks hollowed.  His entire body could feel the sensations of Rhett’s expert tongue teasing the underside of his cock, massaging the swollen vein. Rhett’s warmth encompassed Link, as he sucked deeply on the head, flicking at the precome trickling out. Deep pangs of excitement swelled through Link’s middle and shot along his body, making his hair stand on end. Squeezing his eyelids shut, Link took in the gentleness while he still could. He knew it would not be so gentle soon. 

“Is that really what you thought?” Rhett spat, Link’s cock dropping unceremoniously down on his abdomen. Link could feel the wetness of his precome leaking down his stomach into his belly button.  Link wriggled his pelvis, his erection becoming hot and painful. Rhett had been at it for what seemed like hours. Taking him to the brink of orgasm and stopping only to yell nonsense at him. Words and scenarios that Link didn’t understand. English became a language too difficult to comprehend because all his blood and focus were in a place other than his brain. 

“Useless head games.” Rhett muttered against Link’s balls, as his moist lips fell deliciously on Link, surrounding him. Using his tongue, Rhett began licking figure eights around Link’s scrotum. Pulling one, then the other into his mouth causing Link’s body to vibrate and his eyes to roll back. Link could feel the tease of Rhett’s tongue as it lapped at his taint and every area around his asshole. 

“You thought you could rip everything away from everyone and nothing bad would happen. That love would offer you forgiveness.” Rhett’s hot breath against his sensitive parts was pure torture. Link bucked up, trying to hit something to release this tension.  _ Just a little more, _ his mind begged. His penis twitched, each time a silent plea for Rhett to finish him off. He felt like he could die of frustration. Link’s body demanded a release. The demand overwhelmed his senses.

_ So close. So fucking close. _

But Rhett denied Link the pleasure of this. And Link needed it. Needed something, anything. Rhett was not going fast enough. Not touching him enough. His tongue was caressing ever so softly against him and Link couldn’t take it anymore. He wasn’t just helpless with desire, the desire was so great it was like torture. It was like someone ripped apart his insides and showed his innards to him. 

He felt as if Rhett and his body were betraying him. Making him feel just enough to keep this never ending balance of exquisite want and need, but never pushing him over the edge towards satisfaction.  And Link needed it, needed it more than oxygen. He was panting with it, stars in his eyes, muscles limp and heart aching. 

“Please. . . “ Link begged. “I can’t take it anymore.”

Rhett laughed. Not a happy, carefree laugh. Not a laugh that Link would like join, their voices melding as tears came to their eyes. The laugh wasn’t full of love or even friendliness. No, Rhett laughed like an evil villain. A mastermind. Like he knew something Link didn’t know and was very content to hold that knowledge over Link. 

But at the moment, Link didn’t care. Didn’t mind that all of Rhett’s actions pointed in the direction of hate and anger. The thought didn’t enter his mind that this Rhett hated this Link in this space with every fiber of his large being. Link couldn’t care less, because he didn’t know that he should care. All he knew was that Rhett was responsible for giving him what he needed. And Link needed Rhett. Needed him with his entire reality. 

From where that need came, Link couldn’t remember. It was hot and it was heady and it was all Link knew. The need for Rhett made his heart cease to beat and made his soul cry. But Link didn’t care what the need caused him to do. Link was determined in his need. He was determined to see this need through to the end. Whatever end that may be, Link didn’t know it. Couldn’t comprehend where he would end up or where he was now. The need overpowered his sense of right and wrong, love and hate, fate and responsibility. He didn’t care what this need made him do or what it would make him do. Rhett was all Link knew, all he wanted and would ever want. The rest would just have to be enough, because Rhett was enough. 

“You think you can take and take. When have you ever given? What makes you think you deserve the pleasure I give you?” Rhett demanded.

“Please. . .please. . .” Link begged again, the back of his head thrown back and his hips grinding, seeking out a warm place. 

“Life doesn’t work that way!” Rhett screamed, taking a handful of Link’s most sensitive area just enough to have Link cry out, tears dripping down his cheeks forming puddles in his ears. 

“What makes you think you deserve the pleasure I give you?” Rhett screeched again as he squeezed harder. Link bit his lip and tasted blood. “Ahh. . . “ He groaned. Ugliness and absolution danced along his skin, battling for dominance over his body. Link couldn’t breathe with Rhett’s nails dug snuggly into his testicles. 

“What makes you think you deserve anything in this world, after what you have done?” Rhett snarled from between Link’s legs. 

Painful pleasure sewn together to form one sensation, the desire to come. The necessity for Link to come and to come now, before he bit his tongue clean off. Just when Link thought his body would explode, that the nails digging into him would make him pass out, the hand and Rhett were gone. 

“Rhett. . . .? Rhett!. . .” His screams echoed and bounced around him without a place to land. 

And Link was left painfully turned on and alone in the dark. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that updates have been few and far between. I have been sitting on these chapters, trying to make sense of them. Thank you for your patience, beautiful readers!
> 
> Check me out on: [Razle-Dazle](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com)


	5. Self Flagellation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over and over Rhett punishes Link, trying to force him to remember. What should Link remember? Is there any warmth left for Link?

Link was awake. Did he ever sleep? He couldn’t remember closing his eyes, but he must have slept. The time seemed to be too long from when Rhett had left him panting in the dark until now. Hours, minutes, days, who knew how long Link had been lying on the slab, unable to move. 

But now, as he blinked into the semi-darkness of his cage, he found that he was no longer tied down. He rolled his wrists, expecting a rush of tension to be released, but nothing occurred. His muscles did not ache, his once broken raw skin was shiny and new. It was as if none of the pain and humiliation had happened.  Like the previous horrendous moments were a dream or nightmare or happened to someone else. 

He rose up into a sitting position and forced his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. He blinked. He rubbed his eyes. He blinked again. In the semi darkness, he hopped off the slab and stumbled along carefully. His shaky feet barely left the ground as he shuffled inch by inch forward. Hoping that the ground was as level as it had looked from his imprisonment. 

He swung his hands in front of him, in an attempt to graze something. His hand caught on a bumpy, smooth hard wall. Maybe if he followed along it, he would be able to feel his way to an exit. For several minutes, Link bumbled along in the darkness. He came upon neither door, nor window, nor crack in the wall. It felt like he was going around in circles, there was no way this wall could be that long. But still he had to try. He continued his steps, until he heard a cracking sound, the sound of something cutting through the air. 

The sound found his calf and the sudden sting took Link’s leg out from underneath him. The sound rung again through the air, striking Link’s tender midsection. “Grrahhh…” 

“The sweetness of the lick of pain is compared to none other.” Rhett’s voice skipped around Link. 

Link heard the sound again and his hands flew up to protect himself. He did not know what the sound was, but he knew the bites of pain that accompanied it. As the sound crackled through the space, blinding light swirled around Link, burning his eyes. 

“Has this time away from me helped you remember, sullied soul?” Link squinted toward the voice. All he saw were shadows encased in yellow light with an arm raised. Link cowered away from the arm. That arm held the source of the noise. The noise that hurt him just moments ago. 

“Oh, you do not care for my new toy? Another item I acquired just for you.” Rhett looked almost crestfallen as he slapped the flogger into his palm. Link eyed the black and red leather thing in Rhett’s hands. The solid handle fit perfectly into Rhett’s palm, as the thin leather straps fell gracefully outward, barely grazing the ground. 

As Rhett motioned with the whip, the long, thin, leather strings bounced in the air to a song. The snap and crackle echo was a terrifying genre all it’s own. Link did not want to be a part of this dance. He didn’t know the moves and was afraid of what would happen if he took a misstep. He skittered away as fast as his scared arms and legs could carry him. But for crawling away, Link was gifted two swift pops to the back and behind for his trouble. 

Link screeched and fell on his side and the flogger raised again and three swift bites to his left shin and one to his right as threads of saliva gurgled out of his mouth and dripped to the rocky floor beneath him. 

“Now, now. We can’t have you leaving before you have learned. Don’t you want to learn?” Rhett asked syrupy sweet as he attached the pair of shackles that were connected to the wall onto Link’s wrists. Link could not remember feeling or seeing these before. But he did not have time to dwell on the weight of the metal around his hands or the sudden appearance of these foreboding restrictions. 

He felt the pain before he heard the sound this time. Sudden electricity against his body. There was no rhyme or reason to the stings. Link could not find the pattern. It was random and therefore he could not predict Rhett’s movements. Which made the anticipation as bad as the actual deed. 

“Pain is healing. Are you healed yet, meaningless soul? Feel the healing power I wield.” 

Link’s body stayed rigid the entire time in anticipation of another sting of the thin leather fingers. And oh there was another one. And another and another. And another. Several in fact. Lighting up his toes, his ankles, arms and cheeks. When he received five short flicks to his nipples, bile rose in his throat and he felt like he was going to spill out his innards. 

But each time, Rhett hit him, he would place his warm mouth to the spot. Each time Link cried out, Rhett was there to lick away his tears. The sweet balance of pain and pleasure left Link confused. Did he wish for the sting, did he want this? No. no. no. It hurt like hell, this pain was wrong. But how could Rhett’s mouth be wrong? Link squeezed his eyes shut and balled up into his body. 

“Oh, filthy soul. Are you dreaming of sweet things? Beautiful kisses and low whispers? You will get nothing like that here! You are still not ready!” Another painful swipe to his face and neck. This time the pain was not replaced by the warm lips or calming tongue. Had Link just imagined that?

“Do you remember now?” Another burst of flames to his groin and he felt himself on the edge of blacking out. No soothing kindness was given this time. Link must have been hallucinating the softness of Rhett. 

“I said, ‘Do. You. Remember?’ ” 

“Remember what?” Link whimpered, biting his lip to ride out the pain between his legs.  

“Remember what you’ve done.” Rhett said simply. As if the answer was right there written before Link’s eyes. Like Link was entirely too stupid to read the writing on the wall. Link shook his head, trying to clear the painful haze away. 

“Why are you doing this to me? Please, let me go. Please!”

“Let you go!” Rhett strode up to him and grabbed him. Rhett roughly turned the smaller man over so that he was on his hands and knees, ass up. Taking his thumb, he scooped up the tears rolling down the man’s face. With a tear lubed finger, he pushed the tip into Link’s asshole feeling the clench of muscles. Link hissed through the intrusion that was much less painful than the flogger had been. 

“Me? I do nothing to you. It is you, ragged soul. You, who have chosen this fate.”

Rhett worked his thumb all the way up to the first knuckle, seemingly to relish in the smaller man’s pleasure-pain. Rhett’s other hand pulled his swollen cock out of his pants and guided it toward Link’s cleft. The tip barely trailing along the brunette, smearing precome in it’s wake.   

“You choose to forget. You choose to burn. You chose this. I could no more force you than I could force myself.”

Removing his thumb, Rhett squeezed both of Link’s ass cheeks around his ready cock and began pumping slowly across Link’s hole. Link felt the tease against him and bucked his hips into Rhett. The familiar need that he had felt years ago or mere days ago --Link could not recall the time -- when Rhett would not allow him release, resurfaced and pulled a moan out of Link’s throat. 

“I feel nothing. I am nothing. I do nothing.” Each sentence was punctuated with a thrust of Rhett against Link, Rhett’s balls slapping against the prone man. Link reached up to massage at himself, but could only hold the tip in his fingers. He bounced between jutting his hips into Rhett and into his own hand. His eyes followed the drips of moisture beading off of him and plopping to the earth, leaving a wet spot. Once, twice, plop, plop. Link held on to the steady stream of sweat pouring off of him. It kept him grounded and in the moment as his breathing came out in short rasps and his knees scraped against the ground at each pounding of Rhett against him.   

“All I am is what you cause me to do with your feeble mind and your weak resolution.  And you ask  _ me _ to stop? ”

“No. Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop.” Link breathed, struggling to get as much of himself into his hand as possible. Straining toward the friction and pressure. Link could feel the cool pin pricks against his skin at Rhett’s exhalation on his neck as he threw his body against Link. Link was a limp rag doll to Rhett’s constant pummels as Link was used for nothing but the satisfaction of the blonde man. Sweat dripped down onto Link and Rhett’s cock, mixing with the precome and Link’s glistening body and dried tears. But Link did not care. Cared nothing for himself. He just wanted Rhett, needed Rhett. Needed release. 

“You should be begging yourself, pleading with your own mind.  I hold no power in this. Do you remember now, feeble soul, ugly soul, worthless soul?” 

One more forceful thrust against Link’s chaffed crease and Rhett’s moans rang out, as Link felt the hot spurts of Rhett’s pleasure up and down his back. The warmth soothed the marked skin that had been thrashed and punished. Link felt a chill of excitement run through him, but as Rhett turned him over, the sensation in his cock waned. 

Rhett leaned over and covered Link’s body with his own, kissing his neck and clavicles. Dipping his tongue into the grooves and nipping at the crevices. Tracing over the lacerations and bruises left by the flogger. Sinking into Rhett, Link melted into the caresses and gentleness. Naively, he let himself float on Rhett’s whispered words. 

“Look deep inside, to your innermost self. This is you doing the deed.” Then without warning, Rhett was on his feet and the flogger was at it again. Link did not have time to flinch or act or scream. The strikes stole his breath and with it any voice he might have had. 

“Look at yourself. Look beyond yourself! Do you feel the chains fusing with the whip? Do you feel the slice of pain and the glee of satisfaction at causing it?” Rhett spread his arms wide at the question, the leather straps dangling quietly above Link’s body. As the whip came crashing down on him, Link couldn’t even feel the exact location anymore. His body was scalded and throbbing. Every lick of pain was felt in every part on his body. 

Falling limp against the merciless rocks as he held himself together with tired arms, he braced himself for more. There was always more. More pain, more ugliness. But the insults Rhett spat at Link meant nothing. The pain was a pointless thing and the questions Rhett hurled at him were but annoying insects buzzing around his face. His weary, broken heart was already in too many small sharp pieces. It could not be broken into anything finer. 

So Link bit into the pain and let it encompass him. He reached within himself and grasped at those shards, feeling their cut. Relishing in the anguish of whatever it was that he had forgotten.  The pain was sweet and arduous. Something called to him in the farthest recesses of his subconscious. 

Link tried to ignore it, but he felt the wealth of knowledge in his fingertips. He flexed his hands trying to will the ideas away from his brain. Shadows crossed in front of his vision. Faces, names, and a place that he should recognize but didn’t. Someone else’s memories flashed before him. Stark white rooms, lush sandy dunes, a withered body in a small bed. Tubes and wires and the smell of decay. Link could feel the unforgiving hard tile beneath him. A large cold hand in his.  

There was something shiny and familiar about this vision. Link could taste the memory. It settled heavy on his tongue. Link’s mind began to open to something. Not something. Someone. That body in the bed. Such a familiar event. Who was that?

Rhett’s demented laugh brought Link back to the airless room, his dark prison. 

Focusing on the source of the laughter, he saw Rhett’s body flick in and out, disappearing and reappearing in different areas. Jumping from wall to wall, corner to corner and ending up in front of Link’s face. Rhett smiled, a dastardly unhinging smile and his form cascaded upon itself. Skin and bones rippling upon themselves as blonde hair and broad shoulders folded in and fell to a heap at the ground. 

Rhett’s form shed itself like a snake shedding it’s skin, revealing  _ The Link. _  A slight, toothy grin glinted sharply as dark pools glared out at the tied up man.

“Have you asked yourself why? Why do you do this to yourself? Why do you make me hurt you like this?” 

_ The Link’s _ mouth was moving, but Rhett’s baritone voice was echoing all around the helpless brunette. 

“Have you? Do you remember, now?” Rhett’s voice asked from far away. 

_ The Link _ screamed an unearthly cry, shaking Link to his core. The sound was like a dying animal, one that was bleeding and tortured.  _ The Link’s _ face was streaked with dirt and his palms were black. He face seemed to skitter along revealing different faces, but always came back to this one familiar face. Link’s face.  _ The Link _ took on the same stance as Rhett had the first time Link had encountered him in this place. How long ago was that? Had Link always been here? The smaller man couldn’t recall and his thoughts were cut short. 

Wielding the whip like a weapon,  _ The Link _ laced up and down Link’s body cruelly and without break. Link felt a never ending fire burn every inch of him as he lunged off the ground and struggled against his restraints. Searing agony tensed his muscles and closed his throat, trapping his anguish inside. White hot pain burned behind his eyelids and his face was drenched, in sweat, tears or blood, Link could not tell.  Link begged to black out, to bleed out, to be no more. Anything to get away from the neverending barrage. 

As grueling as the lashes felt, they were suddenly pushed away. Replaced by an even more intense feeling. The feel of unforgiving, smooth leather and the stretching of tired muscles. He felt his hands glide along the strap he held just as clearly as he was able to feel the cold metal digging into his wrists. His biceps tensed with effort as he felt his arm being thrown forward and pulled back in one quick motion. 

Relief and severity blended together as the torment shot through his body, but somehow felt distant. The captive man watched  _ The Link _ as he switched the flogger, but somehow he was no longer in this body laid out on the rocky terrain, but in  _ The Link’s  _ body. He could feel his essence being stretched between two planes of existence.  It was liberating and terrorizing to feel himself torn between bodies as he experienced the actions and sensations of both in a turbulent mix.  Clenching his lip between his pointy incisors, Link let out howls of suffering as  _ he  _ bit into his own flesh over and over again. 

_ The Link _ heaved his body into each swing, feeling the crack of the flogger rip through him like he was trying to sever a part of himself. The part of himself that he didn’t know about. The part that he wasn’t sure was there and if it were there, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

But he could not stop himself. He did not want to. With the pain, came steadiness. The knowledge that something was being accomplished. A wrong was being righted and that the upside down world had been restored. With each flick of his wrist and mark left on his no longer smooth skin, he felt that he would be whole soon enough. That his fragmented heart might be saved. Maybe, just maybe the pieces could fit back together. 

Yet as he whipped his arm back and forth, the same feeling was thrown to the side. This  _ Link _ felt nothing but desperation and anger. Like something was taken from him and it would never, could never be replaced. And the reason for it being gone was unimportant. Because that reason never existed, would never exist.  Link would never be able to get back what he had lost. Not lost. It was never misplaced. It was thrown away. Link could never hold in his hands what he had so carelessly and ruthlessly demolished with his own free will. The trauma of the loss would never be healed.

As the whip sliced through him, causing blood to pool around him, Link battled with himself and his bifurcated emotions. Thoughts were pulled apart and shredded, only to be glued back together in new and terrifying ways. Link’s breath was fast and he could feel himself straining against the division of himself. Being stretched to the point of breaking. To the point of losing himself completely among the bodies and disappearing. 

Until it all was gone. 

Thought, pain, and the ripping indecisiveness of his essence had disappeared. He had returned to his original body. Nothing felt real, but everything seemed solid again. Raising his head, Link glimpsed at the body in front of him. _The Link_ no longer brandished the whip. In his place was Rhett, who stood over Link, laughing maniacally at his tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and sticking with this fic, lovely readers. Any comments, kudos or feelings are welcome. They keep me going and push me to write more and better for you. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has already left such nice comments and kudos! I see you and appreciate you!<33


	6. Is that really you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhett is not who he seems to be. Nothing seems like it should. 
> 
> But when Link thinks he has found the real Rhett, will they be able to escape? Will they ever be safe?

“Ho ho ho,” Rhett’s laughter bounced off all the walls, settling heavily in Link’s gut. This was not a laugh that was familiar to Link. His soul knew the real sound, like the low strums of a guitar on a windless night. But this was different, wrong somehow. Like it was an octave too high or a different instrument altogether. Link had the distinct impression that Rhett’s laugh should make him feel real, but this made his core hollow and scared. It was a feeling that scratched at his stomach cavity, vying for attention. But Link didn’t know what it wanted. He didn’t know what this all meant. He just didn’t know. 

The laughter shook through Rhett’s whole being, sparking his skin making him glow in different shades of orange and black. Rhett opened his mouth and the laughter continued, but the trembling, uncontrolled body no longer shuddered. Rhett barely looked alive, aside from the terrible screaming sounds that seemed to leave through unseen holes in his body. 

Dark light burst out of Rhett and Link gaped in open mouth horror as the blonde man’s skin began to peel from his body, as his form was sliced in two down the middle from head to toe.  Far from a clean cut, tendons elongated and snapped and bones were ripped from sockets. Goopy strings of insides dangled from the open slashes, dripping blood and bits of himself to the floor. The bits scurried around Rhett, slithering back up along his skin to find a home somewhere else on his being.  

Link’s ears filled with the tearing wet sounds. He felt his vision darken and brighten as he straddled the line of consciousness. Link couldn’t keep his eyes off the sight in front of him as one half finally yanked free of the other with a wet plop and fell to the floor in a heavy thud. The remains lay where they landed and Link thought Rhett was gone. A feeling of loneliness and grief filled him. As tears pricked his eyes, he noticed the small movement of skin begin to stretch and reach out. The bodies began to fold into themselves, as skin reattached over the open oozing parts. Skin braided itself over bones and muscles, as appendages seemed to grow back grow back from dust. 

Hands pushed up and the beings heaved themselves off the ground, standing their full six foot seven inches.  Exact copies side by side stared out at Link with similar expressions. Link was numb and his eyes darted from man to man. He flicked his tongue, willing his mouth to say something. But his words were failing him. 

There was something off about the one on Link’s left. There was a glimmer in the green eyes, a sweet shimmer that spread throughout his face.  His beard curled around his lips, but Link could spot the slight smile escaping through the whiskers. The man held his palms out toward Link as if asking the man to come closer. The light hairs on his chest and arms blended in with his polished ruddy skin. It was as if Link had imagined the earlier carnage for how smooth and perfect this man seemed. 

There was a small pouch of skin in his abdomen, but Link could glimpse the muscles underneath hiding. Firm and masculine features underneath soft skin. A thought entered his mind as he stared at the space below the man’s belly button- ticklish. Link did not know what this meant, but the word made him smile.

He felt an intense urge to circle his hands around this man and run his fingertips along the space, to delight in the sounds that would escape from the taller man. Time moved slowly or quickly, how was Link to know as he battled with this one thought. The snaking idea to reach out and caress this man. To feel his skin burn his hands and destroy his mind. Link willed himself to step forward, but begged his fee to stay in place. He was unsure and fearful.  

But several moments later, the man on the left stepped forward. His eyes stayed on Link’s and were careful. As the man drew closer and raised his hand to Link, the brunette stilled and squeezed his eyes shut. Delicate fingers lined his face and a voice, “I found you. I will keep you safe.” And the warmest set of lips pressed down on the corner of Link’s mouth and he melted into the safety of the man. 

“Is it really you, Rhett?”

“Yes, baby. It’s me. Don’t be afraid. Let me. . .” 

But Link’s Rhett was interrupted by a slap in the face from the other Rhett. As Link’s Rhett went flying to the ground in a huff, the other Rhett squared up and kicked him in the gut, sending spittle flying out of the prone man.

The other Rhett flew at Link. “Do you remember, now? Do you know what you have done to him? To yourself?!” In a rage, the other Rhett, fell onto Link’s Rhett, grabbing his shoulders and slamming his head into the ground. The perfect smooth skin became marred by gashes and swelling. 

“Stop!” Link screamed yanking at his restraints, kicking up dirt around him. “Why are you doing this? Let him go.” 

The other Rhett froze at Link’s words and a puzzled expression traveled from his brow outward. His smile was sickly and made Link’s stomach turn.  One last punch to Link’s Rhett and he was up wiping his bloody hands on Link’s midsection. 

“Why am I doing this? Why am I? Look at yourself, you ragged soul. Look what you have done to him. To yourself. I do nothing that you haven’t already done, first.” 

At that the other Rhett was gone. Leaving the brunette, still bound and Link’s Rhett unconscious and bloody on the floor a mere feet away. 

“Baby. Rhett. Are you okay? Rhett, please answer me.”

In response, all he heard was ragged breath. Sharp intakes and his own heart beating in his skull. Rhett’s breathing should have comforted Link, but it didn’t. Nothing about this place felt safe. Link didn’t care for himself, but now that Link’s Rhett was here, Link knew they were in danger. So when he watched the curves of Rhett’s breast rise and fall, the feeling of his love being alive did nothing to quell his trembling. Only his hands and mouth and smile would. Only them out of this dark desolate place and out in the sunshine would. Link wanted to reach out and pick Rhett up and shepherd him to a beautiful place filled with life and air. But there was no way out and his Rhett was so far away. Even if Link could reach him, they were trapped. 

Link widened his eyes to take in more of Rhett’s movements. Maybe, the more pain he absorbed from the other man, the better off they both would be. But as the other man curled into himself unconsciously, Link knew it was no use. Rhett was in pain and there was absolutely nothing he could do. 

“Oh, Rhett. I love you. Please be ok.” Link whispered with tears in his eyes.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me on this fic. I know the updates have not been as fast as one would hope. Please enjoy.


	7. I remember . . .

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something horrible happens to Rhett, but it brings with it an understanding. Link finally remembers. Now the question is, can he forgive himself?

“Wake up, you worthless soul.” Link felt a kick to his ribs that forced air and snot out of his nose. 

“Argh. . .fuck. . .” 

“How dare you sleep, when your professed beloved is lying in the muck. How could you leave him?” The Other Rhett shouted.

“I didn’t leave him.” Link yelled back. “I followed him. I came looking for him.” Even as the words left Link’s mouth, he didn’t understand them. He didn’t even know what he was talking about. 

“You’re so full of shit, you bastard soul. Punishment must be dealt and be dealt swiftly.”

Link clenched, waiting for the blows. Waiting for the lack of air and for the whips to bite at his flesh, making him bleed. Squeezing his eyes shut, he gasped in air and held his body rigid. Several moments went by and nothing, until Link’s ears picked up on groans and the rustle of fabric. 

Opening his eyes, Link glimpsed The Other Rhett yank the pants off of his Rhett. The Other Rhett had pinned the man down and was circling his cock along the crevice of his hole, glaring out at Link. 

“Do you remember?” The Other Rhett asked, acid in his voice. 

“What. . . are . . . Stop. . . No. . “ Link stammered. 

“I am disappointed. Have you learned nothing?” He said shaking his head. 

“Remember, you did this.” The Other Rhett growled and jammed up to the hilt inside of Link’s Rhett as he howled at the intrusion. Hips rolled in and out of the quaking entrance as The Other Rhett shoved Link’s Rhett into the dirt. The blonde man’s teeth scraped his inner lip and blood mixed with the soil. The aggressor dug his fingernails in prompting a cry from the prone man as their faces shone slick with sweat from the effort. One’s effort to chase his pleasure and the other straining to drag himself away. No matter what Link’s Rhett did, he was trapped and overpowered as he was fucked mercilessly.

Link couldn’t look away from Rhett’s glassy red rimmed eyes. These eyes pleaded with Link to stop this, to save him. 

_ Please, I am dying. I am in pain. Fix this.  _

His face screamed into the void of Link’s heart and the brunette struggled and wailed against his restraints, cold steel ripping into his already bleeding flesh. Link could care less if he sawed his hands and feet off, as long as he could pull the monster off of his Rhett. The pain that burned his skin was nothing compared to the pain burning inside of him at his inability to stop the horror of the situation.

“Stop, please. He’s done nothing.” Link screamed, tears clouding his voice. 

“True, he has not.” The Other Rhett said, still grinding his hips into his beloved. 

“But you have. You caused this.” He drove into the crying man with Greedy and uncaring thrusts. He cared little of how much it hurt the man underneath him, as he disregarded the tearing of tender flesh or the bruises forming underneath his ministrations. 

“Why are you doing this? Stop, stop, stop!” Link’s shouts were ineffectual and he felt useless. There was nothing he could do. Short of gnawing off his own limbs and dragging his bleeding body over to the Rhett, he was powerless. 

“You. still. Have. Not. Learned.” Each word punctuated with a slam into the limp body that was close to losing consciousness as eyes rolled into his head and tongue hung out limply. “Everything I do, you have done and more. How have you forgotten this? Don’t you remember?” 

Link felt his gut tense and adrenaline shot through his veins at the sight of His Rhett being taken so ruthlessly. His whole body tensed as if to attack. Every muscle coiling as pressure mounted. 

Link blinked and felt the tension suddenly leave his body in waves as he felt himself come, spilling hot seed into a warm tight place. “Gah . . .” Link groaned, thrusting himself over and over, milking every last drop of his pleasure. His hands twitched against solid muscles.  He parted his eyelids and glimpsed a sweaty body underneath him.  His eyes flew open there was Rhett white as a sheet and bleeding beneath him. 

“Why did you do this to me?” 

“No , no, no . . .I didn’t. I tried to get free. I couldn’t. I couldn’t help you. I couldn’t save you.”

“Link, why? Why?” Slow tears ran down Rhett’s face. “You’re a killer. How could you hurt me like this?”

Painful knowing prodded Link’s brain, trying to find an entrance. It slithered along the grooves and snapped along into his brain stem, twisting. 

“I couldn’t. . . There’s was nothing I could do. . . I needed you . ..but. . . you were gone . . .”

“You took away my air. You left me alone, Link. I was cold and scared. How could you do that to me?” 

“I didn’t . . . I couldn’t. . . You left me first. . .” Link’s words felt jumbled and useless. He did not understand what was pouring from his mouth. He needed reassurance. Reaching out, Link tried to cup Rhett’s cheek and bring him closer. As Link’s hand reached the blonde man’s face and it continued past the jaw and through to his insides, a soul crushing shrill burst from his body.  Link pulled his hand back and slapped both of them over his ears as his voice melded to Rhett’s and became one thrumming echo.  And then he was gone, as if he had evaporated into the air. Link blinked and the room went pitch black as maniacal laughter flew around him. 

“Did you like my trick?” More laughter hummed beneath the surface and Link felt himself doubled over in giggles. Covering his mouth and clenching his stomach, he shook his head trying to free himself from the unwarranted laughter.  _ No, no, no. _ The room seemed to sway and spin. Link tried to rise to run away from his own insanity, but each time he stepped forward, he lost his footing and fell hard to the ground.  New bruises marred his flesh with each attempt to escape his own voice. Giving up, he curled into himself, laughing and crying as his chest felt heated and uncomfortable. 

Suddenly, pills appeared in front of him and Link scampered away from them, tripping over his limbs and scraping his palms. He looked down at the blood flowing from his fingers and the pill bottle blinked into being, heavy and solid in his hand. Without thinking Link downed its contents in one swallow. Instant terror bubbled inside of him and his body doubled over and he proceeded to dry heave and vomit blackness at his feet. 

 

Blood curdling screams sliced through the prison and tormented Link’s ears as he vomited his entire existence into the dirt. The scream, much like the flogger had once done, left cuts and marks along the way. Link could feel Rhett’s anguish wrap its bony fingers around his body and squeeze the air from him. Link collapsed on himself into a rubbery heap, as each howl of fear and agony whipped at his very being. Lighting his brain on fire, with thoughts. Thoughts that made him clutch the area where his heart once was. A throbbing clenching of muscles that no longer worked, but that hurt just the same. 

 

The ache of memory cascaded down his shoulders and arms and Link felt cold and alone as he stared down a stark hallway, gray and dim. 

 

Something beckoned him and he felt himself being pulled against his will, but not forced along to a door. Link brought his fingertips to the surface. Solid and made of metal as it swung open with barely a touch. His essence glided along the floor, feet barely touching as he was placed in front of a too small bed with a larger than life being connected to many wires and tubes. The tubes snaked their way along his arms and face, making him seem impossibly weak for his giant frame.

 

Beeping noises filled his head, as Link’s gaze slid along the thin body, tracing shoulders and up his neck and glancing at his face. Before Link could let recognition take hold, many faces travelled along this man. A young blonde boy with a quick smile, a teenager with sparse hair along his chin, an older man with long hair styled upwards. The faces skated along revealing different styles of hair and a multitude of expressions. Yet the one synonymous feature of all the faces were the eyes.  Kind green orbs that had held on to Link his entire life. Link could recognize the pupils set in bright irises anywhere and at anytime. They belonged to a face that had searched him out for comfort, love and companionship. These long lashed eyes belonged to Link. Emerald eyes that only looked at Link, as Link’s blue eyes looked back. Always and always.  

 

The faces zoomed past until they settled on an impossibly beautiful face that was entirely too wonderful for words. A bearded face of a more mature man. His face. Link’s lifeline.

 

It began in Link’s fingers. The insane fear, the uncontrollable urge to jump out the window to escape this. It hummed up to his wrists and past his elbows, causing a tremor to quake his limbs. The adrenaline flew threw his veins, exploding in his heart and travelling outward along his tendons. Link shook like he was freezing. Like he had gone outside in the middle of winter without a coat, without shoes or clothes. His teeth chattered at the vibrations ripping through his small frame.  _ No. no. no. no.  _ With the tremors came realization.  _ No. no. no.  _ The realization bored a hole in his brain, unrelenting to his anxiety.  _ No no no.  _ Link couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. The only thought that pierced him was this face.  _ No! _ This face attached to this body in this bed in this hospital connected to these beeping machines. 

A memory sliced through him, humming along his lacerations and bruises, filling him up to bursting. Link’s brain opened wide and all that he had forgotten, all that had been lost to him for the longest time, came rushing back like a freight train. 

 

_ Rhett!  _

 

_ Rhett died. _

 

_ No. _ his brain countered.  _ Rhett did not die. You killed him!  _

 

“No.” Link whispered, clutching the sides of his head.

 

_ You allowed the tubes and wires to be severed. You watched as he stopped breathing, You held his heart and squeezed until it stopped beating. _

 

“Ugh….” Link moaned, his body hurt and his mind raced. 

 

_ And then you turned your pain onto yourself.  _ A whisper of all the deeds Link had done grew louder and more insistent, echoing Link’s actions so he would never forget the things he had done.  

 

_ You killed two lifetimes.  _

 

_ You tore two people from this world, from people that loved them and needed them.  _

 

_ It’s your fault.  _

 

_ You did this.  _

 

_ Murderer.  _

 

The agony of understanding lit into him and was worse than anything he had ever experienced in this place. He fell to his knees. 

  
“I remember.” Link wept into his hands. 


	8. All He Knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Link wallowed in the knowledge of what was lost. Rhett had promised to find him, to always find him. But Link couldn’t even find himself. He had lost himself a long time ago._
> 
> Will Rhett be able to find Link?

Link’s face was flushed with all that he knew. It bubbled in his chest, every so often gurgling to the surface making him lightheaded and nauseated. All that he knew could wrap around the universe and arrive back to him, with still more information to spare. Now there was a reason for the shards of heart stabbing him from the inside. There was a reason for the terror and darkness, and the barrage of pain inflicted on him. He breathed in a sigh of knowing that filled his being with coldness as this entire realm started to make sense to his small tired brain. 

The realization of every life he tore apart and all the blood he caused filled him to the brim. And even though he knew what he knew, it was too little too late. Link would never find forgiveness. His denial had been the death of his soul and now his innermost self would not forgive him or release him. The Link had burrowed deep inside him and although the chains had disappeared from his hands, the shackles that wrapped around his essence could never be broken. He was rooted in this place with no kindness, no softness, no warmth.  _ It is what you deserve _ , The Link in his being shouted to him. Banging around inside Link tearing him down, breaking his bones and savoring in the flavor of his tears. 

The Link was a dark creature that had started out in the small corner of his heart. With each denial and each moment of forgetting, The Link grew. And as The Link grew it gnawed away at every kindness and every ounce of good in Link. Link drowned In the bleeding of his shattered heart and choked on the bile that was rising in his throat. Black sludge, in the form of The Link, had spread throughout his body, seeping into every crevice. And now that he knew, The Link had filled him with hate and anger, but mostly regret. 

Link was unconcerned with life outside of his new reality. He barely knew that life anymore. The bright sunlight was darkness in his mind. Colorful reds and yellows of the changing leaves in fall, gnarled into sharp claws that dug at his eyes. Life outside his prison was warped into nothing more than grays and beiges, filled with cries of anguish.  The word love, never mind the idea, was a concept that Link no longer knew. And it filled his core with emptiness. He could feel the loneliness bore a hole in him and it hurt. Physically and mentally hurt to know that this hole was once filled with something sweet. A sweetness that was enveloped in warmth and hope. That Link had once been whole.  But he couldn’t understand the absence of this feeling. He only knew the resulting discomfort and overall feeling of unease and judgement.   

No, his previous life held no weight with him. What really concerned Link was now that he possessed this newfound knowledge of his deeds in his previous life, Rhett was truly gone. Link would no longer have the hurling insults or have his body used for pleasure. Rhett would no longer question him and hurt him. Link would no longer be able to gaze into those perfectly green eyes. He would take all the pain and hatred back, if he could go back to ignorance. Even though Link had been afraid and alone, he had Rhett’s presence. No matter how harsh and tortuous it had been. Now all Link had was himself because now he knew. 

Link knew that the things that happened to him in this place, were never Rhett’s doing. Rhett was never here. Of course, Rhett wouldn’t be here. He was pure and golden, loved and loving. Rhett did nothing to deserve this fate. But all the same Link missed him. Missed everything about him. 

Link wallowed in the knowledge of what was lost. Rhett had promised to find him, to always find him. But Link couldn’t even find himself.  Link had lost himself a long time ago. And now he sat on the cold, unforgiving ground and the weight of knowing he had shattered two worlds crushed him. He glanced around his prison and the air seemed to leave him.  The walls oozed and breathed, as gravity seems to increase pushing everything down. The ground appeared to vibrate and Link only now realized that his prison was filled with nothing. Nothing but rocks, dirt and despair. It was only fitting that his world now remain as tattered as the world he had left behind. Not left behind, ruthlessly destroyed. 

He shook his head. His actions seemed beyond him as exhaustion filled him. It all seemed simple, the things he had done. He eviscerated two lives like it was easy. Like the breath that filled his body and Rhett’s body wasn’t sweet, wasn’t real, wasn’t necessary. He held Rhett’s hand and watched the life float from his body. It was quiet. The breathing that slowed seemed small. He wondered how he could have gone through with it. Why he let it happen? Now it just seemed complicated and messy. Grotesque even. But looking back, it had seemed right. Link shook his head. The remembering was warping and shifting. Memories were severed and moved, adapted and filled. His final moments were sharper and in high definition, as were Rhett’s. Everything seemed closer and harsher. 

And this would be his reality now. Remembering. Forever remembering what he did to Rhett and to himself. With each passing moment, Link remembered and relived each final moment with keen eyes. Not only did he feel his own pain and regret, but he experienced Rhett’s agony in his final moments. Link felt the strangle of breath as he drew air into his own mouth and the slowing of his heart, just as Rhett had felt. He experienced Rhett’s body shudder and his blood speed through his veins chasing after the last remnants of oxygen, as if the two men were sharing a body. His brain neurons fired quickly and then slowly, as his body stopped receiving and giving messages to the vital organs and systems. Link felt the electric pain of death, just as Rhett had when Link allowed the nurses to unhook the needed tubes and machines. It was Link’s fault  and Link would continue to bear the anguish, fresh and raw. It would be his reality over and over again. 

Not only would Link slowly perish over and over inside Rhett’s mind and body, but he was given a second gift.  Link was given the ability to reexperience the white hot pain in his stomach and the seizures of his body as the pills took him.  Sometimes he would be hovering above and other times he would be inside his own body as death twisted him painfully into a creature, not even he could recognize. He would be able to feel all the anguish and tears of his loved ones rush over him. The pinpricks of sorrow and grief would stab at him and every tear, every scream and every broken heart would be a knife slicing against Link’s body. Time after time, until the end of forever. 

As Link slumped upon himself with the pressure of realization, he knew there had been good times before everything fell out from underneath him. He could feel the happiness tingling in his scalp. It was like a distant memory on the tip of his tongue.  He reached out for it, grasping at air as the memory danced through his fingers. 

This previous reality was overflowing with goodness and part of him knew this, but he would not allow himself the pleasure of those moments. He would not allow himself to reimagine the times when he hugged Rhett and could feel the gentle hands along his shoulder blades. Those dark nights spent alone in the office, Link singing and Rhett strumming his guitar evaporated into the air. The cold water as it chilled him to the bone, but the smile of his best friend warming the entire expanse of earth before him was cut from his heart. 

These were not the things that he knew. This knowledge had been detached from him, because The Link would not allow this bliss.  Link would be forced to learn from his mistakes in life and it would not be an easy lesson. And Link would never learn, never really fully understand if he were allowed the beauty of his former life to warm him. So the memories were kept at arm's length. There, only in wisps of smoke and tingles, in hints and reminders of all that he had thrown away and all that he had destroyed.  Each moment of his existence filled with the remembering of agony.  And this would be his world now. Each day would be filled this way. And Link would burn every day as a tickle of a good memory would be washed away with the pain of knowing all that he had done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you dear reader for reading, commenting and leaving kudos. Your kind words and thoughts fill me with happiness. 
> 
> I know it was a long time between updates, but I have not given up on this fic. I appreciate that you haven't either! <33
> 
> Find me on [Tumblr ](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/)


	9. His Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Rhett’s own body had been struggling, trying to wake it up. But it was too late. The darkness on Link’s face told him a story of what was about to happen. Rhett’s skin screamed that he was not ready._
> 
> An impossible choice needs to be made. 
> 
> Will he choose Link or endless bliss?

Rhett opened his eyes and looked at the vista before him. Confused, he stretched his long arms above his head, feeling his large knuckles crack with each bend of the finger. He sat up, crossing his legs in the sand, one hand on his ankle the other on his chin. His fingertips danced along the softness of his full beard, tugging at the tiny hairs in thought. 

 

His brain itched with something. A word that hadn’t passed his lips in what felt like eons. A word that had once caressed at his lips quite frequently. The flavor was sweet on his tongue as his teeth chewed into the word. It was familiar and it was his. 

 

“Link . . .”

 

_ Link? Where was Link?  _

 

Rhett shook his head and glanced around him. He fully expected to see the brunette loping down the beach and throwing himself at his friend’s side. But Rhett saw nothing but miles of sand in all directions. Birds that once sang sweet songs as they flitted on the wind, were silent. The trees that swayed as if to say good morning to Rhett, were oddly gone from the dunes. All that was left was Rhett, sitting in the sand staring at the white soapy surf crawl up the coast and slither away. 

 

The blonde man could have sworn Link had been here. Right with him a moment ago. To be honest, Rhett wasn’t sure of much. He knew he was Rhett. He knew Link was Link. He knew that he was a on a beautiful beach surrounded in paradise. But aside from that, his existence waxed and waned. 

 

Life before and life after waking up in the sand with the sun on his face was a blur. Time moved at different wavelengths here. Days seemed to drag on as Rhett would walk endlessly on the shore, kicking up sand or feeling the ocean waves rush over his toes. Fear, Sadness, excitement and death were all things that Rhett never knew. Things that never touched him. In this place there was an endless cloud of content. A sense of calm permeated every bone of his being. It was a wonderful way to continue his days in a quiet subdued level of consciousness. Rhett was happy. 

 

But this day, he was not. This day he woke with a feeling of dread. His heart felt it way before his eyelids fluttered open and his mind clicked back into wakefulness. His heart pitter-pattered, sending adrenaline along his fingertips, making his ears tingle. He was ready. But ready for what he did not know. 

 

Thoughts came slowly. One thought built upon the other as pieces fit together to form an idea. And that idea was the lithe body of his friend. The wavy chestnut locks of his messy hair as it grazed at the edge of his neck and kissed along his forehead. The clear azure eyes that matched the expanse of the ocean before Rhett. The smile that lit up his face and brightened Rhett’s entire world. Link. 

 

_ Link? Where was Link?  _

 

“Link. . . “ Rhett formed his lips around his best friend’s name. Tasting the salty air, as he flicked his tongue out to meet his bottom lip. “Link.” He said as a punctuation. A statement of fact. This man had been here. This man had existed. But where was he now? 

 

Rhett hopped to his feet, determined to find him, but a wave of nausea fell over him. The gagging knocked him to his knees. Images of pills and tubes and a dark room flooded his vision. His skin began to prickle with anxiety, as his chest heaved small strangled breaths. His hands felt sticky, as pain radiated out from them, up his arms to his lungs and clutched his chest. Fire burned beneath his breastbone. 

 

_ Dead. I am dead. _ Rhett realized. 

 

His fists were still tangled in his hair. A twist of icy terror clawed up his arms and ripped into his chest 

 

_ Link was dead. _

 

Not just dead, but lost. Gone. Somewhere that Rhett could not find him. Rhett’s eyes began to tear as he realized all the things that this place suppressed from him. All the pain and loneliness both in his final moments and the now.  His brain caught on the fact that now that he has woken up, he is really truly by himself. 

 

Rubbing his eyes, Rhett watched as the sun dipped low across the horizon setting the ocean aflame in golds and oranges. The sky lit up with hope and promise of better days, but that feeling did not reach Rhett. He was numb to the warmth of this place. Because now he fully realized that with contented smiles, he was smiling only to himself. With every free stride down the beach, he was walking without a friend at his side. And with every nap, his toes buried in the sand, he had no one to reach out for to keep him warm in sleep.  Tears rolled off his apple cheeks and got stuck in his beard as knowledge of his circumstances cascaded upon his mind.  

 

Moments ago he was blissfully happy. Now he didn’t know what he was. But he was a husk of what he once was. The light in his eyes had darkened and he was empty. Empty, but from a single voice that echoed from his lungs, banged around his esophagus and came hurling out his mouth, “Link”. 

 

_ Link, Link, Link. _

 

A tiny light caught his eye. Squinting, he glimpsed a yellow brightness from across the ocean. It contrasted starkly against the colors painting the world in hues of purple and blue. Rhett was mesmerized by this light. 

 

His body moved of its own accord as it drug his soul along for the ride.  _ Link, _ his mind whispered. A smile pricked his lips. He knew Link was lost. His whole being screamed the knowledge at him. The weight of it cramped his muscles and made him weak. But this light gave him strength. He just knew it was where he would find Link. 

 

Focusing every ounce of his essence on the light, Rhett trudged straight into the ocean. Coldness licked at his hips making him tremble. The fear and chill burned through him as he continued to move toward the light. The ocean was lapping at his shoulders, but still he walked on toward the beacon. He grasped at it with both hands. Link. Link was there. He knew Link was there. He had to get to Link, had to find him. His arms ached to wrap around his tiny body and hold him close. Rhett could taste the scent of Link’s hair in the back of his throat. Rhett would have that scent in his nose again, no matter what. 

 

“L-...”, Rhett gurgled as the ocean waves went over his head, matting his hair down against his forehead and ears. Rhett refused to swim. This was not how he would find Link. His foray into the ocean was not a casual swim to burn off energy and make him content. Becoming one with the sea and enjoying the wonders of this place was the furthest thing from his mind. This trek was different. 

Rhett knew before it started that it was going to be dangerous and painful. Litters of ocean water snaked their way into Rhett, filling his lungs. The burn was familiar and expected. It was reminiscent of the burn he experienced in his final moments. Death is not as peaceful as holy men and doctors want to make it out to be. It is loud and it is bloody and it is cruel, gross and messy. And the person is scared. They have no control over what is happening. They are tired and asleep, struggling to come back, but their body is through with them. It has rejected them and decided to give up without their consent and sometimes without their knowledge, until it is too late. 

Rhett’s own body had been struggling as his mind shouted and thrashed, trying to wake it up. He was trapped, but he felt the soft hand in his and the warm body against his side and hope filled him. But it was too late. The darkness on Link’s face told him a story of what was about to happen. And try as he might, Rhett couldn’t get his fingers to squeeze onto Link’s delicate fingertips. 

Rhett’s skin screamed that he was not ready. His insides weeped and begged for more time. But Link could not hear him, the nurses didn't care to listen and as Rhett clearly heard buttons being pressed and felt tubes being unhooked, the grip of death tore through his core. It filled him to the brim with acid fear as death burned through his tendons and muscles, melting them from the inside out. He could feel his heart like he had never felt it before. Because instead of the steady drumming in his ears, it quivered and shriveled up. 

Fire shot from his chest and lit along him, shutting it down system by system. He felt everything, knew everything that was happening every small step of the way. He was hyper aware of each and every cell that was deprived of oxygen. He felt these tiny bits of himself vibrate as they withered and curled upon themselves in death.  Every miniscule molecule sighed and cringed, as he took his last breath.   And he knew it was his last breath. His mind fired neurons and lit his skull on fire with noise and light highlighting this knowledge. 

The pain was excruciating, the emotion was fresh as his last breath trickled through him. Slowly, everything became distant and still as the oxygen was depleted. He could not pick up on his own body’s sounds anymore. And before the thought could enter his mind, a pain more tortuous than a million fire pokers stabbed into his skull and through to his brain and everything went dark. 

Rhett felt all of this and more in his final moments, just as he was feeling it now in the minutes as a decision was being made.  There was a choice to be made. The choice was to give up his wings and station in this land of quiet and serenity in exchange for more time with his best friend. He barely acknowledged the sliver of doubt in his heart. The choice had already been made. It would always be made, because Rhett could not choose any other life.  And as the water darkened his eyesight and stole his air, he made the decision. It was Link. It had always been Link. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, commenting and leaving kudos. It really makes my day to see people enjoy what I write. <3
> 
> [Tumblr](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com/)


	10. A Life Well Lived

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhett finds Link, but what he sees breaks his heart. They are together, but at what cost to Rhett. Can Rhett really give up his happy forever for the man he loves?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My lovely readers, I know I almost let this story wither and die. I apologize so much for the wait. But I have resurrected it and it seems to be screaming to be finished. My plan is one more chapter. It is already planned. So it should come soon. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for your patience! I appreciate all your comments, kudos and just for reading.

Link lifted his head and stared blank, unblinking into Rhett’s eyes. “Are you supposed to be here? I don’t think you’re supposed to be here.” 

 

Rhett swallowed and took Link’s face in his hands.  Kissing him softly, he whispered against the raven haired man’s lips, “Where else in the world could I be, if you’re here?”

 

“No. No. This is not how it’s supposed to happen. You’re not here. It’s not you!” Rhett could barely hold on to the squirming body in his hands. What had happened to his friend? 

 

“Link, Link! It’s me, Rhett.” The blonde man panicked. 

 

“I don’t know who you are. Let me go!” The brunette was scared and it broke Rhett’s heart. Link didn’t know him. He let his hands fall and watched the other man race to the other end of the dark enclosure. Where were they anyway? Rhett couldn’t make out any windows or doors. He couldn’t see much light and didn’t know how he had gotten into this room. 

 

His mind returned to his best friend, looking like animal like with no hint of recognition in his face. Rhett felt the weight of everything that he was giving up. He knew what his forever after was going to be and it was not long drawn out kisses or fairy tales and happily ever afters. He could not and would not expect foot popping lips on lips, dizzy, head spinning make out sessions. The two men were not so lucky after all. 

 

It was going to be horror and mayhem. It was going to be watching his heart in front of his eyes not know who he was anymore. Not knowing where he was. Not knowing his own name. It was going to be slowly losing himself in this hell dimension. The only comfort he had was that he would be right next to Link and that they would be together in the end, no matter how unhappy that end might be. 

 

He had vowed to the other man when they were barely able to understand what a covenant was to do something great and to be at his side. It was a contract that spoke of forever, very mature and impossible to grasp for barely teenage boys. But forever happened as they continued their lives side by side in joy, but the end that they had sworn to see each other through, well, it came too soon. 

 

And as he stared at his friend milling around in the half darkness, seemingly afraid and anxious, he knew what this meant. He accepted his fate and walked over to the man who had a moment ago pushed him away in fright. “Hey, Link, buddy roll. Can I hold your hand?” He reached for the dazed man, but the brunette didn’t seem to notice the touch. He wound his arm around the man’s shoulder, while still holding his hand. The familiar scent of Link tickled his nose and made him happy to have had this experience one last time. The scent of coffee and cereal that he had known in real life. He wallowed in this feeling, because he knew it wouldn’t last long. It would flit away and get lost like a puff of smoke. Rhett squeezed into Link and as the fogginess began to descend on his mind, he smiled and let the blue eyes take him body and soul. 

 

Rhett’s life flashed before his eyes in a haze of yellow and pale orange. Everything sped quickly around his head, but each flash held Link. Link as a child racing through the forest with Rhett close at his heels. Link half naked swimming in the creek with Rhett trying to dunk. Link kissing his girlfriend across the room and gazing over at him, filling his heart with warmth. Link smiling at him after a particularly good day of filming and ideas and brainstorms. Link laughing at him when Rhett expounded upon his plans for the future. Sparkling eyes and pouty mouth. It was like stepping back into time, a shared past that felt like it had no beginning or end.  

His mind misted over as the blank blue eyes began to steal the flashes of his life story. Nights spent awake in laughter, days spent in the chilly waters of the rushing creek, a child’s voice that deepened over the years but the warm eyes that stayed the same. Rhett could feel his entire soul leaking from his pores and rushing to Link. Staying here would mean the end of Rhett, but what was Rhett really without Link, without his friend. What a lonely forever it would be without Link and to Rhett it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t worth finally recalling the laughter and closeness of his friend, only to know that he let Link wither and suffer alone. A forever of promised joy was an impossible feat without the smaller man to share it with. Nothing in Rhett’s life had been sweeter or more real until Link was there to share it with and the same rang true now. The afterlife would seem dark and dismal with the knowledge that Link was someone that Rhett could not reach. 

  
So, with a free heart, Rhett let his mind drift and leave his body, he gave away his soul to the powers that be, the powers that demanded satisfaction for past sins. He would suffer along with his friend. It wasn’t even a conscious decision he made, it was his heart and body acting for him. Like it always did when it came to Link. The darkness eked into his subconscious and he could almost glimpse the spark of recognition in Link’s cerulean eyes. He almost reached for the man. He almost said Link’s name. But. . .but the darkness took him and he was no longer Rhett. He was no longer anyone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out on [Tumblr](http://razle-dazle.tumblr.com)


	11. Not A Thought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Link is faced with a decision, Rhett or freedom. Was it really a choice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the remaining chapters have been slow to come out. We are nearing the end, people! Finally, we will see how these boys get their happily ever after. I fully intended this to be a sad ending, but conversations led me to push for a happy ending.

_ “Rhett. . .Where are you?” _

 

_ “Here, Link. I’m not leaving you. I’m staying Link. I’m staying. . .”  _

 

Link had been gone a while. He knew by the weight of his bones in his body that told him the story of suffering and despair. The angry lines on his skin and the purple bruises screamed a tale that Link could barely grasp, but wasn’t sure he wanted to. Lined along the edges of this memory was screaming and fire, but also Rhett. It felt like he came back to his body bit by bit, the feeling filling his fingers and toes and shooting sparks up his limbs. Finally, the numbness left and warmth flooded his chest, opening his eyes wide. He felt more awake and present than he had felt in what seemed like a lifetime. But could have merely been ten minutes, how was Link to really know. All he knew was that the darkness of the room blinked in and out, flashing brightness like a bulb about to go out. Shadows painted the walls, scary and strangled, shifting and morphing with every blast of light. 

 

Suddenly he saw a familiar tall figure shaking and hitting the wall aimlessly. 

Link’s brain went blank as something painful shot through his mind.  _ R. . . .R. . .Rhett? _

 

His body held him in place, but he forced his foot forward. One step at a time. Right, then left, then right. His legs didn’t want to move because they knew. They knew before his mind could catch up. This wasn’t how this was supposed to be. Something was wrong. 

 

“Out. . Gotta get out. . .Gotta find Link. . . Out. . . Gotta get out. . .Link. . . Gotta find Link. . .” He mumbled and shook his head, hands flying up to tap at his temple and then bang at the wall again. The banging reverberated through Link’s body, cutting him into pieces. This man before his very eyes, this man wasn’t Rhett. This man wasn’t the creature that hurt him for so long. This was a broken man- an empty and broken man. Tears slipped down Link’s cheeks to see his friend and companion in this state and there wasn’t anything he could do. 

 

_ Rhett, oh Rhett, why did you stay? You should have left me. . .  _

 

Reaching out, he touched the man’s shoulder and caused the taller man to jump out of his grasp. “No.  . . no. . . Gotta find Link. . .” 

 

“Rhett, Rhett. I’m here. I’m Link.” 

 

The man looked at him for the first time since Link walked over. The eyes were vacant and hazy, the hazel was a dull gray. The life and wonder that was usually in those eyes was absent, furthering the pain in Link’s chest. What happened? Where did his friend go? 

 

“No, no, . . .Link. Where is Link?” 

 

Shaking his head, the brunette tangled his fingers in the man’s hand. “I’m here, I’m here, brother.” Link whispered settling them down into the dirt. What was Link going to do? The man was shaking and muttering under his palms, and Link rubbed light touches up and down his friend’s back. “Shhh. . . you’re okay, you’re okay, Rhett.” 

 

As quickly as they settled into a rhythm of breath and heart beat, the world began to quake, shaking their imprisonment and cracking the foundation of their world. Loud, ear splitting sounds exploded around them and Rhett began to howl a high pitched scream. Ahead of them, Link could see the walls opening up with a hazy film over the opening. 

 

_The way out!_ 

 

“Come on, Rhett. Come on. We have to get up! We have to leave.” But Link couldn’t budge him. The man was dead weight at Link’s feet. “Rhett! Get up!” The enclosure began to violently shake and cracks ripped through the walls and floor around them, loosening the rocks as mayhem fell around their ears. They were going to get buried in this place with even less space to roam. It was imperative that they get out now. Link’s mind clicked away. How? How could he get Rhett to stand? 

 

“Rhett! Rhett! I think I saw Link. . .” Rhett stopped his screams and tilted his head, still not looking at Link. “Come on Rhett. Come on! Let’s go find Link.” Link was able to lift the more compliant man and together they made their way to the opening. It was small, but Link figured they could both fit if they held their breath and crawled through. Hand in hand, Link pulled the man closer to the cracked wall. “Come on, Rhett. Link is just this way.” The blonde man seemed to mindlessly follow. Nearing the space, Link reached his hand out and felt the space around the hole push back. He shoved his arm against it, put his hip into it, but it was no use. For some reason there was an invisible bubble that Link couldn’t permeate. Releasing Rhett’s hand, he put his whole body into it and fell forward. 

 

_ What. . . ? _

 

It didn’t matter, the place was falling down around them and they needed to leave. Whatever had been there, seemed gone. Grabbing Rhett again, he pushed forward, but again the bubble was back up. 

 

_ No. . .Only one of them could leave.  _

 

So, Link pushed Rhett forward. The man had come for him and now Link saw the man’s opportunity to go back to whatever beautiful place he had left. He wasn’t going to leave the man in this space to be hurt and alone, when it was Link’s fault that he was there in the first place. The outside looked brighter and safer. It had to be better than this dark hole. So the blonde man would be without his friend. That was okay. It would be better than being trapped in here, in the dark. Link placed his hands on the man’s back and guided him forward, only to have the man bounce back. Link shoved and pushed the taller man into the space, but each time the man wouldn’t move any further and he started to cry out from the pain of being smashed against an immovable barrier. “Rhett, Rhett! Link is out there. Go, walk, find him!” 

 

Rhett aimlessly walked, trailed his hand along the rocks on either side of the crack and placing his palm on the space, he banged on the open air. The echoing sound bounced around the cave that was slowly filling up with broken and sharp debris. The rocketing sounds cut Link in half. 

 

_ No…. Only, Link could leave.  _

 

It seemed the large man had taken on Link’s punishment, had taken his place. The powers that be or whatever it was playing with them was going to allow Link to finally leave. He looked at Rhett and barely glanced at the sunlight outside. He reached for Rhett’s arm and guided him to a corner that seemed safe. He sat and held the taller man to him, protecting his friend’s face and neck. The room continued to shake, but the shaking turned to spinning and Link thought he might die from nausea if he wasn’t already dead.

Rocks began to gather around at their feet, closing them in a small box, leaving barely enough room for the both of them. It was getting darker and louder and for the life of him, Link couldn’t be scared. His insides trembled, his mouth was dry and his hands had their signature shake. But he didn’t let the world falling down around him or the fact that he would never see the sunset again move him. He wouldn’t leave Rhett. Nothing that happened next would make him question that decision. 

 

Piles of ash gathered at his feet and the dust in the air began to choke him. He placed his hands over Rhett’s mouth and nose to keep the hazard out of his friend’s body, while he took shallow breaths, trying to pull the most oxygen out of the cloud as possible. Soot and dirt caked his throat and traveled to his lungs, making them burn. He could feel the grimy layer on his skin mix with his sweat and create mud in his pores. Still he remained immobile. The rocks were beginning to create a wall around them and Link knew that if he was going to leave, now would be his only opportunity. The walls would be too tall for him to climb over soon. He watched heavy rocks begin to close off the opening to the outside world. His brain didn’t even entertain the thought of leaving Rhett. It wasn’t an option. 

 

The small space that had been opened was now covered by large, heavy rocks. 

 

_ Good. We don’t need to be reminded of what we can’t have.  _

 

 

The wall around them reached higher and higher as the little light that had been in the space was choked out by the last of the falling rocks. The rocks began to land on them, putting pressure on their bodies. Link pulled Rhett underneath him so that the sharp rocks would touch less space on his friend’s body. 

 

“It’s okay, Rhett. I’m here. Link is here. We’re okay. Together. We’re together.” Link held the man against him and rocked as the world caved in and buried them alive, choking off their air and their space.  It seemed that there was a fate worse than death after all. Pain and suffering and bleakness seemed to be their destiny, but Link would not regret his decision to stay. It didn’t even form in his mind. He concentrated his effort on keeping the taller man safe and comfortable from the world disintegrating around them. 

 

The debris and rocks began to smash Link to the ground. Darkness flooded Link’s mind and everything slowly started to shut down. The painful process of death sliced along his skin as each molecule suffocated and died, one at a time. The brunette could feel each body part shiver in agony before it dropped limply around him. Still he held on to Rhett and murmured words of comfort to him. He held the man, until his arms hung lifeless around him. He murmured words of encouragement until his vocal chords seized and were cut. His brain cried out to the man that he was there with him always, until his brain slowly blinked out of existence, but not before his entire body tensed in misery and he felt like his entire core exploded through his skin. Extreme pain lit through Link and he hoped with his last thought that Rhett wasn’t feeling what he was feeling. It was a strong wish, but then it was gone. Link was gone. Everything was gone.  


	12. Absolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Every ending is a new beginning. Link's ending is everything he could hope for and more. The demons of his heart have finally let him move on from his life's mistakes and he has found Rhett.

Opening his ocean blue eyes, he glimpsed the sun low on the horizon, casting the space in shadow and color. The decimation of their world was gone, and in its place, birds floated on the air and the watery sounds of the surf crashed against the sand. Link blinked and rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Moments ago, they had been in a stranglehold, their bodies being crushed under the weight of a tons of boulders and dirt. But they had been together, Link had chosen Rhett, just as Rhett had come searching for Link. Link had been given a gift by his friend, that he wouldn’t accept. The gift of freedom from his choices that he made in a previous life. 

 

But the idea was empty. Freedom was an illusion because his heart was tethered to this man. The brunette could be out in the quiet world, but would always be trapped without Rhett by his side. So, it was without a thought that he had stayed to await whatever fate the heavens bestowed on them. Yet, it seemed the heavens had other plans than to leave them to rot in the dark. 

 

_ They had chosen each other and had made their way through piles of muck and misery to be together. Link had chosen to stay, just as Rhett had chosen to take on Link’s pain.   _

 

It seemed that the powers that be, God or the Devil or whatever else was out there had smiled at their mutual sacrifices. Because here Link found himself in a sweet place, but where was Rhett? 

 

A soft stringed melody attached to a deep baritone voice drifted on the wind, catching his ears and engulfing his senses.  This voice was a voice he had memorized, the rise and fall of sweet music, the thrill of excitement, the range from high to low. It was like that voice had never left his ears, like they had never been separated, but somehow Link felt in his gut that he had been apart from the source of this sound for far too long. Dragging himself to his feet, his body drifted on the wind toward the soft melody. 

 

_ The lover of life's not a sinner _

_ The ending is just a beginner _

_ The closer you get to the meaning _

_ The sooner you'll know that you're dreaming _

_ So it's on and on and on, oh it's on and on and on _

 

 

Glimpsing the man, Link felt his entire body fill with heat. Rhett. Was this really Rhett? Link watched the gentle hands pluck slowly along the strings, fingertips moving deftly along the neck of the guitar. Large hands that had held him up through his entire life. Finally, they were within his grasp again. It felt like it had been ages and eons since Link had glimpsed those roughly calloused fingertips and soft palms. 

 

_ Well if it seems to be real, it's illusion _

_ For every moment of truth, there's confusion in life _

_ Love can be seen as the answer _

 

Link joined in on the final line, his voice matching and melding to Rhett’s, forming a harmony that rang out across the ocean and through the waves. The sound penetrated the darkening sky, shooting smears of light across the purple sky. 

 

Rhett kept his head down, staring at his feet or the guitar strings, Link wasn’t sure. His heavy hands landed in Rhett’s hair and face, and the feeling was electric. Rhett! This was finally Rhett. He was safe and not crushed under rocks. This was not the many faced monster from ages ago meant to hurt and destroy. The man in his hands had no prior obligations and life to continue without Link, and he was here and all his. 

 

Gathering Rhett in his arms, Link pressed his lips to the man’s temple, inhaling the sweet scent that his body had dreamed about since before he could remember.  “Mmmm…. Here you are, finally.” Link murmured dreamily, squeezing the man in his grasp. He would never let go again. 

 

Rhett lifted his head and stared surprised, unblinking into Link’s eyes. “How are you here? Are you real?”

 

Link swallowed and took Rhett’s face in his hands, glimpsing the fear and uncertainty. “I’m here. I’m real.” A whisper across Link’s lips crossing over into Rhett’s mouth, as he trapped the softness in a kiss. “Yes, we finally found each other.” He murmured barely giving himself enough space and time to speak before diving in for another mind tingling kiss. 

 

Rhett’s lips twitched underneath the brunette's mouth and Link’s face was wet from their combined crying. The separation, the torment the fear, was washed away by this simple and soft slide of lips and cleansing power of their tears.. It was liberating, Link’s heart felt freer than it had been in a very long time. But how long, Link couldn’t know. All he realized were the strong fingers combing through his hair and the whiskers tickling his nose and cheek. Pleasure filled his belly because he had finally found his companion. It took death and heaven and hell, but finally they were together. Finally, in this large unending space, they had found their home and their peace. 

 

Link clung to the body in his arms, one he had had to die to be able to touch in such ways. Walking his fingers down Rhett’s bare back, his hands felt along each divet of the blonde man’s spine. Each tight knot a memory of pain that both had to endure to be here in this moment finally free of life and death and everywhere in between. Link’s tired hands that had held on so tightly to endure the pain of punishment and to protect his friend, his everything, dug in now for dear life. Afraid, still so afraid that this was an illusion, that the cave would materialize in front of his eyes and his Rhett would disappear. He couldn’t let it happen. He tore away Rhett’s shorts, dragging them down his knees and off each foot with lightning fast speed. Throwing the linen to the wind, it floated away with the birds. 

 

Guiding their bodies to the ground, Link lay half on top of Rhett, partially sinking into the soft sand. Trails of fingers and kisses lined Rhett’s jaw and took solace in his mouth. How long it had been since Link was able to do this with Rhett, in this very spot. It felt like another life, someone else’s dream. Was this real? 

 

Link’s hand that had been party to wiping away the many tears that snaked their way down his cheeks and the blood that seeped from his wounds, now found a home on Rhett’s hardening dick. The velvety smooth skin and pulsating vein felt perfect in his palm, heavy and real. Locking blue with gray, Link began to pump slowly, matching his movement to the rhythm of Rhett’s heart. With each beat, Link pulled more leaking pleasure from the slit, the precum dripping down his knuckles and into the sand. The space around Link was silent but for their breathing and the fury of their minds. 

 

He didn’t want to break the sweet silence, but Link’s own situation was tenting his pants, leaving wet patches on the cloth. His hips grazed against the beautiful long leg of his lover, but it wasn’t enough friction or heat. The desire rose in Link and his cock demanded attention.   “Touch me, Rhett. Please.” His voice was broken and rough,ringing too loud in the large space. Echoing away with the breeze, Link returned to his task, lips continuing their exploration of every patch of skin they could reach. Pausing only when a large calloused hand palmed his crotch, long fingers dancing along his shaft, lighting fires in their wake. Each tiny touch pushed Link to suck harder on Rhett’s skin, forming darker bruises all along the pale softness.  Fire lit through link and he wasn’t satisfied with the sweet sounds that escaped from the man underneath him, Link needed more and so he went further, gripping more firmly and jerking faster.

 

The world seemed to undulate with their bodies pressed so close and moving against each other. Colors shot across the sky or on the inside of Link’s eyelids, he didn’t know. All he saw was tangled fingers in hair, sweaty brows and soft bearded lips. Rhett’s body was a temple and Link was worshiping at the altar begging for forgiveness and completing his penance. Each stroke of his hand along Rhett’s skin was an admittance of all the wrong doing he had done in his life and afterlife. Every gasp pulled from both their lips was an apology. The sweat that mingled between them was the holy water releasing them and giving them new life in a new place. And when they both reached the crescendo, their voices ringing out and melding together as they had always done, both men crashed over the edge screaming absolution and love. Hearts and bodies now cleansed from their wrongdoing, they were finally able to love each other in the way that they deserved. Breathing hard and hearts pounding out of their chests, they felt themselves ascend to a higher plain of being. Somewhere that was quiet and peaceful and brighter than anywhere Link had glimpsed in this entire plane of existence. Link kissed Rhett fully and without fear, because finally this blonde man was his Rhett and not some monster of is nightmares come to punish him. Link was forgiven. Link was ready to let go of the past and move on with Rhett. 

 

Hand in hand they walked toward the rushing blue waves. The sun was dipping low behind the horizon, casting the sky in light oranges crashing against deep purples, mixing together to form streaks of color across the sky.  Their voices and laughter still reverberated among the clouds.  

 

Strolling toward the horizon, they allowed their bodies to be overtaken as they floated and twisted among the waves. Calm and warmth washed over Link as he clasped Rhett’s hands in the cold undulating surf.  The ocean waves crashed them together and drifted them apart, but they held fast to each others’ hands. 

 

Link reached for Rhett with his other hand, their bodies bobbing together and merging into one being. Shoulders, chests, legs all touching and intertwined as they allowed the  current of the ocean to devour and keep them, finally finding where they belonged.

 

The sun was no longer visible and the world became dark, but it didn’t matter. This darkness wasn’t scary and it wasn’t debilitating. This darkness was the calm that Link had been searching for. The calm that Link’s heart had been calling out for and had found in this man.  Whatever had brought them to this place, Link would never fully realize. Maybe it was finally Link’s time, maybe Rhett giving up his happy ever after had made someone take notice, maybe Link’s devotion tilted the scales. Maybe whomever was playing with them had grown bored. More than likely, the inner demons that Link had let inhabit him, finally set him free. Link had finally forgiven himself for every perceived hurt and sin he had committed. His cold and sad heart finally let him free from the shackles of his own inner guilt. 

 

Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. What did matter was the realization that Rhett was the star that Link had been searching for as a child.  As long as he was with Rhett, they would find their way back to the safety and happiness of whatever the coming chapters of this existence gifted to them. They had each other and that was all they ever needed. Rhett had always been the beacon in a land of darkness that would guide Link on his way home and that’s where they were headed to, together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this doozy is finally done after six months in the making. Thank you every one who left comments and kudos and sent me sweet messages to keep me going. 
> 
> Shout Out to **WolfSprit00** for inspiring me with the idea for this ending, to **Sims (afangirlsplaylist)** for all the encouragement on this story and to **RileyRooin** for all the lovely comments and words of encouragement. 
> 
> Lastly to the people who PM'ed me on Tumblr. You know who you are. Thanks!
> 
> **Song Lyrics Black Sabbath

**Author's Note:**

> I know it has been a long while since my last update. Inspiration was slow in coming for this chapter. But happily it is ready to share with you lovely, readers. I hope it was worth the wait.


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